Essential oils
An essential oil is a concentrated and fragrant liquid of complex molecular composition obtained from a botanically defined raw material. (defined both botanically: plant producing organ, exact Latin botanical name, chemotype, country of origin)
Obtained by distillation or by cold pressing for citrus fruits.
Properties : Analgesics, Calming, Antiemetics, Sanitizers, Relaxing, Anti-infectives, Antivirals, Antifungals, Antibacterials, ...
However, some are hepatotoxic, nephrotoxic, neurotoxic, abortive and dermocaustic for animals.
Essential oils for whom ?
Dogs
Equines
Essential oils in what form?
In massage, inhalation, diffusion, shampoo, balm, spray, compresses or on the skin. However, not all essential oils can be used in all of these same forms.
And in cats never essential oils . It lacks a liver enzyme, the glucuronyltransferase phenols, a hepatic enzyme which allows in other species the transformation and elimination of substances phenols via bile or urine. Thus the elimination of essential oils containing phenols is slow, there is a risk of overloading and toxic hepatitis. We will therefore favor Hydrosols.
It is essential to seek advice from a practitioner before any use of essential oils in animals.
Hydrosols
"A hydrosol (or distillation water) is an extract of an aromatic plant or not obtained by steam entrainment. Part of hydrosols, floral waters, obtained from flowers
During the distillation process in a still, the aromatic compounds of the distilled raw materials are entrained with the water vapor, condensed and recovered in a decanter. The distillate obtained is composed of supernatant essential oil and distillation water, in which a tiny part of the essential oil has dissolved. In this case, we get a by-product, or co-product, of the essential oil.
A hydrolate therefore naturally contains a residual proportion of essential oils, which is of the order of 0.2% on average, as well as all the volatile and water-soluble aromatic principles of the plants from which they come. "Source eméo.
Properties : Analgesics, Calming, Antiseptics, Relaxing, Anti-infectives, Antivirals, Antifungals, Antibacterials, Repellents ...
Hydrosol for whom?
For all animals but mainly for cats.
Hydrosols in what form?
In massage, inhalation, diffusion, shampoo, balm, spray, compresses or on the skin.
Aromatherapy
Use of aromatic compounds from plants, most of the time in the form of essential oils (very often obtained by distillation), but also in the form of Hydrosols, with a view to the prevention and relief of certain disorders as well as to well-being and appeasement in animals. It differs from animal phytotherapy by the fact that the latter discipline uses the various active principles of all plants: stems, leaves, flowers.
Vegetable Oils
A vegetable oil is a fatty substance extracted from an oleaginous plant, that is to say a plant with seeds, fruits or nuts which contain oil.
There are different extraction methods. Always favor cold mechanical extraction which, as its name suggests, is obtained by cold mechanical pressure (like juice). You can identify them by the words "virgin oil" or "first cold pressing", preferably organic!
In common parlance, oily macerates are also called “vegetable oils”.
These oils are obtained by maceration of flowers and plants in a relatively neutral oil. Sunflower oil is very often used.
The oil then takes the active ingredients of the macerated plant
Vegetable oils are made up of fatty acids, which are sources of energy for the cells in our body. Fatty acids moisturize, protect the skin and guarantee suppleness and elasticity to the epidermis.
Each oil has its fatty acid composition. There are therefore as many properties as there are vegetable oils.
Mainly composed of fatty acids but not only!
If for food, it is these fatty acids that are the most interesting, we are interested in unsaponifiables.
But then, what is behind the unsaponifiables?
It is a residue insoluble in water, it is called the non-glyceridic part of an oil. The nature of these unsaponifiables varies depending on the vegetable oil you use.
The main unsaponifiables :
Polyphenols: Antioxidants, healing and repairers
Phytosterols: Anti-inflammatory, protect against UV rays, improve microcirculation
Vitamin E: Natural Antioxidant
Vitamin A: (carotene) responsible for the orange color: Good Glow effect
Vitamin D: It also helps maintain skin hydration.
Squalene: Restructuring of the epidermis (close to the composition of the sebum of the skin)
Minerals: zinc, iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper
And even if they are often present at less than 1% in vegetable oils, they are very powerful and their action is no less effective!
We will very often use Vegetable Oils or Oily Macerates in support of Essential Oils but also in Synergy .
Essential oil
Hydrosol
Vegetable oil
Oily macerate